Elizabeth's 2-year adoption anniversary

On Friday we celebrated 2 years with Elizabeth as part of our family. On March 6, 2007 we first held Elizabeth in an office building in Nanchang, China. Here is my blog post from that day. We celebrated as a family yesterday by going skiing and then giving the kids a treat for dinner (McDonalds), followed by some games at home. A great day!

Here is a photo of Elizabeth getting ready to ski.

Markers are NOT makeup

This is what happens when 2-year-old Elizabeth decided to use a marker (non-toxic and washable, thank goodness) as makeup.

Elizabeth's bedtime routine

Although her feet are straight now and she can walk just fine, Elizabeth will need to wear her foot brace at nighttime until she is at least 4 years old to prevent a relapse. The brace is such a part of her routine that she doesn't mind it at all. Here she is in her PJs, with the brace, and sporting a new hairdo courtesy of mommy.

Happy 2nd Birthday Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is 2 years old today - tax day - so her birthday is easy to remember. We had a party for her on Sunday with all of her grandparents plus her Uncle Jason and Aunt Jan. Most of her gifts were girly-girl things - necklackes, cute dresses, pink sunglasses, and lot of barrettes for her hair, which is shoulder length now and growing fast. Her Uncle Erik gave her a puffer-fish stuffed animal that makes a "boing" noise when it hits something. She had tons of fun with it last night; she picks it up, says "boing", then throws it down and giggles excitedly when it makes it's noise.

Artwork & numbers

Here is a sample of Elizabeth's day care artwork.


And here is an example of Andrew's fascination with numbers and math.


Finally, here are some samples of Andrew's creative side. He is left-handed, after all.

One year with Elizabeth

Yesterday (March 6) is the one-year anniversary of Elizabeth's adoption day. It's almost hard to imagine now a time when she wasn't part of the family.

Walking, talking machine

It's been a while since I've posted an update on Elizabeth. A while back I posted a short video of some of her first, wobbly steps. A few months later, she's walking like a pro, and starting to talk, too. She's come a long way since she started the Ponseti treatment for her club feet!

Mr. Mom's potty training

Amy and I decided to potty train Elizabeth. She's only 21 months old, but when she joined our family at 11 months old, she was already trained pretty well. In China, starting at just a few months old, they put children on the toilet at regular intervals and leave them there until they pee. When they start going, the adults whistle, and the Pavlovian effect takes hold. Pretty soon, they can set the kids on the pot, whistle, and viola - potty time!

We made Andrew go cold turkey (no more diapers - period) when he was 2 and a half years old. Over a 3-day weekend, he learned quickly that he didn't like being soaked in urine. We started the same technique on Elizabeth 2 days ago (except for overnight - she still needs a diaper then), with mixed results. To top it all off, Amy took off with some girlfriends for the weekend and left me in charge of potty patrol. Liz makes it to the toilet about half the time, but in a single 1-hour period this afternoon, I had to clean up 3 accidents - meaning 3 changes of clothes for Elizabeth, and me too.

C'est la vie!

First steps

Elizabeth has taken her first wobbly steps! After spending the first year of her life with bilateral club foot, 3 months in full-leg casts, and then wearing the Ponseti brace most of the day since then, she's doing great!

Burrito face

We gave Elizabeth a bean burrito for dinner tonight, with a predictable but amusing result.

Going mobile with two casts

Elizabeth is now wearing her 4th pair of casts in the series of about 8 pairs of casts she'll need to correct her bilateral club foot. The casts aren't painful, and don't seem to bother her at all. She gets around pretty well, although she can't quite crawl. The casts are thigh-high so they won't slip out of position so easily, but despite that, her right cast has slipped out of the correct position in each of the first 4 weeks. Her right foot is more bent than the left, so the foot hasn't been pulled up as much yet, which makes it easier for this cast to slip down.

This video shows just how mobile she is despite the fact that she can't bend her knees or ankles.

Cast number two

Elizabeth got her 2nd pair of casts on Wednesday. The process starts at home, where Amy soaks her old casts off using a warm bath and vinegar. The plaster soaks off in only about 20 minutes. So far there is no noticeable improvement in her foot position, but it's not expected to be noticeable until the 3rd or 4th cast.

Then it's an hour and 15 minute drive to Greeley. Yep, Greeley. Dr. Hatch is the only Ponseti-trained doctor we could find in the whole state, but it's worth the drive.

At the doctor's office, Elizabeth sits in Amy's lap while the doctor and 2 nurses put the casts on. It takes about 30 minutes, and Elizabeth spends about half of that screaming. You can't blame her for that, I suppose. Fortunately, Amy is able to keep her content part of the time with a bottle and a toy. One week down, seven-to-nine weeks to go!

Cast number one

Elizabeth had her first visit to Dr. Daniel Hatch yesterday to start her club foot treatment using the Ponseti method. She now has thigh-high casts on both legs. For at least the next 8 weeks, she'll be visiting the doctor weekly to gradually move her feet closer to the normal position, getting a new pair of casts each time.


They look horribly uncomfortable, but fortunately they don't seem to bother her. The casting process evoked a fit of ear-piercing screams, though, and she was having a bad before it even started; she was running a fever, acting fussy, and obviously not feeling very well. Poor girl! THe good is that she has gotten over that trauma and today she was in a much better mood.

We may have seen her first fit of jealousy today, though. As Liz sat watching mommy, Andrew came and sat in mommy's lap, and Elizabeth instantly burst into a fit of tears. How dare he sit in her mom's lap!

Talipes Equinovarus

Elizabeth was born with club foot, scientifically known as Talipes Equinovarus. Hers is bilateral, and more severe on the right foot than the left. Club foot is the most common birth defect, and fortunately, it is treatable with a very high success rate.

We of course knew about this before we adopted her. Part way through our adoption journey, we joined the waiting child program, which matches orphans with special needs to adoptive parents. One of our motivations for adopting was to provide a loving family to a child who might otherwise never have one. Kids with special needs are less likely to be adopted, so we felt like this was the right thing to do. We are fortunate enough to have the means to correct Elizabeth's condition, but if she were to stay in China, there is no saying when or if she would receive treatment, and how good her treatment might be. While finalizing our adoption in Guangzhou, it was inspirational to meet several other couples who were adopting kids with even greater needs than Liz - including conditions such as cleft palette and deformed limbs.

We are opting to treat Elizabeth using the Ponseti method, which is a non-surgical way to manipulate the tissues back to a normal position. Although Ponseti is usually started at a younger age, it also has been very successful on older patients. Liz will go through a few months in casts, and then spend many more months with a brace. With a little luck and God's will, she will be completely normal when the treatment is finished.

Liz's first appointment is this week, and I'll be tracking her progress in the blog as she goes through the process. Here is a photo of her feet now.


Since Mia Hamm, the famous US soccer player, was born with club feet, we know that people can fully recover and live normal - even extraordinarily athletic - lives after treating this condition.

Adjusting to a new family

After spending her first 10 and half months at the orphanage and in foster care, Elizabeth is faced with a big adjustment now. All the people and places she is familiar with will be replaced by strange new ones. The first day we had her, she was completely cheerful and smiling. By day two, though, she lost her smile and her appetite. She threw up and had diarrhea. It could be been due to food, or just physical illness, but I suspect the stress of her new reality was a big factor. Days three through five with her new family brought a gradual improvement in her mood and apetitie. On Sunday, day six, we had a bit of a breakthrough. Our room was hot and stuffy, and she seemed listless. Amy and I took Liz and Andrew to the hotel pool, and were overjoyed to discover that she loved being in the water. We set her in an inflatable floatie we brought with us, and that big smile reappeared as she floated around the kiddie pool and watched her big brother splash and play. It was fantastic to see her and Andrew playing together, too.

Elizabeth's birthplace

Today we took a 90 minute journey through the countryside of the Jiangxi province to Elizabeth's birthplace in Fuzhou (in the Linchuan district). The district is home to about 1 million people, which makes it a small city by Chinese standards. She was found as a newborn at the Hua Li restaurant, a non-descript eatery along the town's main road. A dozen or so people, including several small children, were gathered outside as our van pulled up. Foreigners like us are an extremely rare sight in a town like this, so folks were very curious to see us, and especially the little blond-haired boy, who everyone says is piao liang (beautiful). Everywhere we go, people ask about Elizabeth and what she is doing with these strange-looking foreigners. We've learned to tell them ling yang, which means adoption. Our adoption agency has a guide for us, Evelyn, who is usually with us on our outings. Repeatedly, Evelyn has translated the locals' reaction - they say that Elizabeth is lucky and will have a great life with us. It's heartwarming to know that people here understand and appreciate what we're doing.

The Hua Li restaurant in Fuzhou

Ba Ba

Ba ba is the Chinese (Mandarin) word for "daddy". It's also the word for "poo poo". Ok, technically they are different words because they're spoken with different tones, but to tone-deaf westerners, they sure sound a lot like the same word. I guess that means I should think twice about trying to teach Elizabeth to say "ba ba" because she might think I'm issuing a command for her to do something.

Surprisingly, she's fairly well potty trained already at 11 months old. All you need to do is sit her on the baby potty and whistle, and she knows it's time to pee. If you add a carefully-toned "ba ba", she knows it's time for #2.

Her first night with us went quite well. It did take about 30 minutes of crying before she fell asleep, but we were pleasantly surprised that she slept all the way through the night; we'd been warned that she likes a midnight snack.

Presenting Elizabeth Grace Swanson

At about noon today (March 6 China time), we welcomed Elizabeth Grace into our arms and our family. She is a big girl for an 11-month old, with 4 teeth and a big smile! She will officially be our daughter a few hours from now when we sign some papers. Andrew is enjoying his new role as big brother, smothering her with gentle hugs and kisses and being very concerned when she cries.

Elizabeth Grace

That's the name we've chosen for our daughter. We still don't know when we'll travel, but we hope it will be in the next few months. We'll go to the Jiangxi province in China and see for the first time, followed by several days at the American consulate in Guangzhou (near Hong Kong) where we'll finish the paperwork. Upon arrival back home, she'll be a US citizen!